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This drought-prone country of 16 million is so short on food that it is ranked dead last by international aid organization Save the Children in the percentage of children receiving a 'minimum acceptable diet'. The consequences are dire. A total of 51 per cent of children in Niger are stunted, according to a report published in July by Save the Children. The average height of a 2 1/2-year-old girl born here is around 3 inches (8 centimeters) shorter than what it should be for a child that age.

Since December 2011, the food crisis in Niger has displaced large numbers of people from areas of scarcity to parts of the country that enjoyed better harvests. The social impacts for these internal migrants are serious, not least in terms of disruption of education. According to estimates from the Ministry of Education, around 45,000 children have left school this year for reasons linked to the food crisis.

Christine Lagarde's crass comments on Greece have caused an understandable furore in that country. But in Niger, there must be just as much contempt for the IMF director. For in dismissing the plight of mothers in Greece, Lagarde also said she felt more sympathy for 'the little kids from a school in a little village in Niger'. If 'sympathy' is what characterises the IMF's approach to Niger, then Greece would do better to avoid it. Niger comes into news headlines on a fairly regular basis – as...read more

Christine Lagarde's crass comments on Greece have caused an understandable furore in that country. But in Niger, there must be just as much contempt for the IMF director. For in dismissing the plight of mothers in Greece, Lagarde also said she felt more sympathy for 'the little kids from a school in a little village in Niger'. If 'sympathy' is what characterises the IMF's approach to Niger, then Greece would do better to avoid it. Niger comes into news headlines on a fairly regular basis – associated as it is with cycles of famine and constantly high levels of malnutrition. Less reported is the role of the IMF, along with sister organisation the World Bank, in fuelling this suffering, writes Nick Dearden in the London Guardian.

Niger employees of Areva must benefit from the same compensation as their French colleagues, a Niger non-governmental organisation said Friday after a court near Paris said the French state-owned nuclear firm was liable. The court at Melun ordered 200,000 euros ($260,000) in damages to be paid by France's state health fund to the widow of an employee of the Areva subsidiary Cominak, a Niger company which runs an Areva uranium mine at Akokan. The deceased, Serge Venel, died of lung cancer in J...read more

Niger employees of Areva must benefit from the same compensation as their French colleagues, a Niger non-governmental organisation said Friday after a court near Paris said the French state-owned nuclear firm was liable. The court at Melun ordered 200,000 euros ($260,000) in damages to be paid by France's state health fund to the widow of an employee of the Areva subsidiary Cominak, a Niger company which runs an Areva uranium mine at Akokan. The deceased, Serge Venel, died of lung cancer in July 2009 at the age of 59.

Libya has demanded Niger hand over one of Muammar Gaddafi's sons who is under house arrest in the neighbouring nation after he warned in a television interview that his homeland was facing a new uprising. Mohammed Hareizi, spokesman for the ruling National Transitional Council (NTC), said on Saturday that Niger must extradite Saadi Gaddafi and other ex-regime officials to 'preserve its relationship and interests' in Libya. Saadi Gaddafi and more than 30 other loyalists fled to Niger after Tri...read more

Libya has demanded Niger hand over one of Muammar Gaddafi's sons who is under house arrest in the neighbouring nation after he warned in a television interview that his homeland was facing a new uprising. Mohammed Hareizi, spokesman for the ruling National Transitional Council (NTC), said on Saturday that Niger must extradite Saadi Gaddafi and other ex-regime officials to 'preserve its relationship and interests' in Libya. Saadi Gaddafi and more than 30 other loyalists fled to Niger after Tripoli fell to rebels in September.